Muted reaction to blackface scandal: poll

RACE ‘ VERY CLOSE’

How did Canadians react to the revelations that Justin Trudeau wore blackface and brownface? With a big meh, polls suggest.

In a survey conducted by Abacus Data, which looked at reaction to Trudeau’s terrible week and surveyed impressions on the election as a whole, it’s clear that the scandal may not, for now, have had as big an impact as the Conservatives might have hoped.

“The photos and video released late last week was a shock that changed the focus and conversation of the election campaign,” David Coletto of Abacus said in a news release accompanying the poll. “But so far, evidence that they have fundamentally changed people’s impressions or intended voting behaviour is quite limited.

“The race remains very close, all the party leaders are viewed less favourably than at the start of the campaign, and most people say that so far, the events of the past few days won’t change their vote.”

The online poll, run between Sept. 18 and 22, gathered the opinions of 1,929 Canadians aged 18 and older. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.3 per cent, 19 times from 20.

A separate poll conducted by Nanos and released on the weekend shows more people are now “unsure” who would make the best PM. However, these new numbers also don’t show any major move in the positions of any party in the scandal’s wake. The Nanos poll used a three- day random phone survey of 400 voters per evening.

Some 42 per cent of those polled by Abacus said they weren’t bothered by seeing the PM caught in brownface and blackface, and 34 per cent said they didn’t like it but accepted his apology.

Almost one- quarter — two- thirds of whom were Conservative voters — said they were “truly offended” and that it damaged their view of the PM.

Among voters identifying as visible minorities, this bloc was nine points more likely than non- visible minorities and older people to be bothered by the scandal. For all voters younger than 30, this same nine- point difference applied.

Forty per cent of poll respondents who knew about the scandal said they hadn’t been planning to vote Liberal at any rate, and 48 per cent of this same group said the scandal wouldn’t sway them.

Trudeau’s image itself has taken a battering, with his personal positive ratings down four points, and his negatives climbing by three. However, his main three rivals have also seen their own ratings drop.

Abacus found overall the race is almost neck and neck, and numbers remain much as they were before campaigning began. The Conservatives sit at 34 per cent, the Liberals at 32 per cent, the NDP at 15 per cent, and the Greens at 11 per cent.